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Palaephatus
Palaephatus (Ancient Greek: ) was the author of a rationalizing text on Greek mythology, the paradoxographical work ''On Incredible Things'' (; ), which survives in a (probably corrupt) Byzantine edition. This work consists of an introduction and 52 brief sections on various Greek myths. The first 45 have a common format: a brief statement of a wonder tale from Greek mythology, usually followed by a claim of disbelief ("This is absurd" or "This is not likely" or "The true version is..."), and then a sequence of every-day occurrences which gave rise to the wonder-story through misunderstanding. The last seven are equally brief retellings of myth, without any rationalizing explanation. Palaephatus's date and name are uncertain; many scholars have concluded that the name "Palaephatus" is a pseudonym. What little evidence is extant suggests that the author was likely active during the late fourth century BCE. ''On Incredible Things'' Palaephatus's introduction sets his approach betw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boeo
Boeo or Boio () was an ancient Greek poet. Her dates are unknown, but the earliest surviving stories about her date to the third century BC, and Ian Plant suggests a third century date for her. According to Pausanias, Boeo was from Delphi. He reports that Boeo wrote a hymn which told how the Hypoboreans built the temple to Apollo at Delphi, and that the poet Olen was the first oracle there and the inventor of the hexameter. Both Olen and the Hypoboreans were more usually associated with the sanctuary of Apollo at Delos than Delphi, and the founding of the oracle at Delphi and the invention of the hexameter were traditionally attributed to Phemonoe; the fusion of these two traditions appears to be Boeo's own innovation. Boeo was possibly also credited by Philochorus as the author of the ''Ornithogonia'' ("The Birth of the Birds"), who in other sources is named Boios. None of the poem survives, but it may have been the source of some of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. W. Robert Conn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cerberus
In Greek mythology, Cerberus ( or ; ''Kérberos'' ), often referred to as the hound of Hades, is a polycephaly, multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Greek underworld, underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. He was the offspring of the monsters Echidna (mythology), Echidna and Typhon, and was usually described as having three heads, a serpent for a tail, and snakes protruding from his body. Cerberus is primarily known for his capture by Heracles, the last of Heracles' Labours of Heracles, twelve labours. Etymology The etymology of Cerberus' name is uncertain. Ogden refers to attempts to establish an Indo-European etymology as "not yet successful". It has been claimed to be related to the Sanskrit word सर्वरा ''sarvarā'', used as an epithet of one of the Sharvara and Shyama, dogs of Yama, from a Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European word *''k̑érberos'', meaning "spotted". Lincoln (1991), among others, critiques this etymology. This ety ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euhemerus
Euhemerus (; also spelled Euemeros or Evemerus; ''Euhēmeros'', "happy; prosperous"; late fourth century BC) was a Greek mythographer at the court of Cassander, the king of Macedon. Euhemerus' birthplace is disputed, with Messina in Sicily as the most probable location, while others suggest Chios or Tegea. The philosophy attributed to and named for Euhemerus, euhemerism, holds that many mythological tales can be attributed to historical persons and events, the accounts of which have become altered and exaggerated over time. Euhemerus's work combined elements of fiction and political utopianism. Early Christian writers, such as Lactantius, used Euhemerus's belief that the ancient gods were originally human to confirm their inferiority regarding the Christian God. Life Little is known about Euhemerus's life, and his birthplace is disputed. Classical writers such as Diodorus Siculus, Plutarch, and Polybius, maintained that Euhemerus was a Messenian, but did not specify whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paradoxography
Paradoxography is a genre of classical literature which deals with the occurrence of abnormal or inexplicable phenomena of the natural or human worlds (Latin ''mirabilia'', 'marvels, miracles'). The term ''paradoxographos'' (paradoxographer) was coined by Tzetzes. Early surviving examples of the genre include: * Palaephatus's ("On Incredible Things") ( 4th century BCE) * The ("Collection of Extraordinary Tales") composed by Antigonus of Carystus (fl. 3rd century BCE), partly on the basis of a paradoxographical work of Callimachus * Apollonius Paradoxographus's (2nd century BCE) It is believed that the content of the pseudo-Aristotelian ''On Marvellous Things Heard'' (''De mirabilibus auscultationibus'') originated in the Hellenistic period, while the final form reflects centuries of expansion at least as recent as the second century of the Christian era.Laura Gibbs, review of Gabriella Vanotti, (Milano: Bompiani, 2007)''Bryn Mawr Classical Review'' 2009.02.22/ref> Phlegon of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydra (mythology)
The Lernaean Hydra or Hydra of Lerna (), more often known simply as the Hydra, is a serpentine lake monster in Greek mythology and Roman mythology. Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, which was also the site of the myth of the Danaïdes. Lerna was reputed to be an entrance to the Underworld, and archaeology has established it as a sacred site older than Mycenaean Argos. In the canonical Hydra myth, the monster is killed by Heracles (Hercules) as the second of his Twelve Labors. According to Hesiod, the Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. It had poisonous breath and blood so virulent that even its scent was deadly. The Hydra possessed many heads, the exact number of which varies according to the source. Later versions of the Hydra story add a regeneration feature to the monster: for every head chopped off, the Hydra would regrow two heads. Heracles required the assistance of his nephew Iolaus to cut off all of the monster's heads and burn the neck usin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Chimaera
Mount Chimaera was the name of a place in ancient Lycia, notable for constantly burning fires. It is thought to be the area called Yanartaş in Turkey, where methane and other gases, such as hydrogen, emerge from the rock and burn. Some ancient sources considered it to be the origin of the myth of the monster called the Chimera, because of similarities described below. Ctesias is the oldest traceable author to offer this euhemerizing theory. We know of this because of a citation by Pliny the Elder, who in his second book of Historia Naturalis identified the Chimera with the permanent gas vents in Mount Chimaera, in the country of the ancient Lycian city of Phaselis, which he described as being "on fire", adding that it "...indeed burned with a flame that does not die by day or night." Pliny was quoted by Photius and Agricola. Strabo and Pliny are the only surviving ancient sources who would be expected to discuss a Lycian toponym, but the placename is also attested by Isido ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Actaeus
In Greek mythology, Actaeus (; ), also called Actaeon, was the first king of Attica, according to Pausanias. Legend Actaeus was said to have ruled over the kingdom of Attica, named Acte ( ''Akte'') or Actica. The ancient Parian Chronicle states that Actaeus gave Aktike its name before it was changed to Cecropia by King Cecrops, and later became known as Attica. Another story tells that Atthis, a daughter of Cranaos, the king succeeding Cecrops in Athens, was Attica's namesake. Actaeus (prior to 1582BC Parian) cannot be the same person as Aktaion (Grandson of Cadmus 1519BC Parian). Aktaion was the hero that saw Artemis bathing and she changed him into a stag. Afterwards, his own hounds killed him. Family King Actaeus had four daughters named Aglaurus, Erse and Pandrosos, who all got offspring, but a fourth daughter, Phoenice, who died a virgin. The wife of King Actaeus is obscure. According to the Byzantine Suda Lexicon, the ancient Greek historian Scamon of My ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athens
Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southernmost capital on the European mainland. With its urban area's population numbering over 3.6 million, it is the List of urban areas in the European Union, eighth-largest urban area in the European Union (EU). The Municipality of Athens (also City of Athens), which constitutes a small administrative unit of the entire urban area, had a population of 643,452 (2021) within its official limits, and a land area of . Athens is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years, and its earliest human presence beginning somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennia BCE. According to Greek mythology the city was named after Athena, the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suda
The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an encyclopedic lexicon, written in Medieval Greek, Greek, with 30,000 entries, many drawing from ancient sources that have since been lost, and often derived from Christianity in the Middle Ages, medieval Christian compilers. Title The exact spelling of the title is disputed. The transmitted title (''paradosis'') is "Suida", which is also attested in Eustathius of Thessalonica, Eustathius' commentary on Homer's epic poems; several conjectures have been made, both defending it and trying to correct it in "Suda". * Paul Maas (classical scholar), Paul Maas advocated for the spelling, connecting it to the Latin verb , the second-person singular imperative of , "to sweat". * Franz Dölger also defended , tracing its origins back to Byzantine mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras (; , ''Anaxagóras'', 'lord of the assembly'; ) was a Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. Born in Clazomenae at a time when Asia Minor was under the control of the Persian Empire, Anaxagoras came to Athens. In later life he was charged with impiety and went into exile in Lampsacus. Responding to the claims of Parmenides on the impossibility of change, Anaxagoras introduced the concept of '' Nous'' ( Cosmic Mind) as an ordering force. He also gave several novel scientific accounts of natural phenomena, including the notion of panspermia, that life exists throughout the universe and could be distributed everywhere. He deduced a correct explanation for eclipses and described the Sun as a fiery mass larger than the Peloponnese, and also attempted to explain rainbows and meteors. He also speculated that the sun might be just another star. Biography Anaxagoras was born in the town of Clazomenae in the early 5th century BC, where he may have been born into an aristoc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pelias
Pelias ( ; Ancient Greek: Πελίας) was king of Iolcus in Greek mythology. He was the one who sent Jason on the quest for the Golden Fleece. Family Pelias was the son of Tyro and Poseidon. His wife is recorded as either Anaxibia, daughter of Bias, or Phylomache, daughter of Amphion. He was the father of Acastus, Pisidice, Alcestis, Pelopia, Hippothoe, Amphinome, Evadne, Asteropeia, Antinoe and Medusa. These daughters are sometimes called collectively as '' Peliades'' after their father. Mythology Early years Tyro was married to King Cretheus of Iolcus, with whom she had three sons, Aeson, Pherês, and Amythaon, but she loved Enipeus, a river god. She pursued Enipeus, who refused her advances. One day, Poseidon, filled with lust for Tyro, disguised himself as Enipeus and lay with her; from their union were born twin sons, Pelias and Neleus. Tyro exposed her sons on a mountain to die, but they were found by a herdsman who raised them as his own, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medea
In Greek mythology, Medea (; ; ) is the daughter of Aeëtes, King Aeëtes of Colchis. Medea is known in most stories as a sorceress, an accomplished "wiktionary:φαρμακεία, pharmakeía" (medicinal magic), and is often depicted as a high-priestess of the goddess Hecate. She is a mythical granddaughter of the sun god Helios and a niece of Circe, an enchantress goddess. Her mother may have been Idyia. She first appears in Hesiod's ''Theogony'' around 700 BC, but is best known from Euripides's 5th-century BC tragedy ''Medea (play), Medea'' and Apollonius of Rhodes's 3rd-century BC epic ''Argonautica''. In the myth of the Argonauts, she aids Jason in his search for the Golden Fleece. Medea later marries him, but eventually kills their children and his other bride according to some versions of her story. In the ''Argonautica'', Medea plays the archetypal role of helper-maiden, aiding Jason in his search for the Golden Fleece, using her magic to save his life and kills her bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
